After the Dawn
by LadyAzrael1994
Summary: Sixteen year old Amaya Kazuhiko never thought she'd fall in love   yes it's one of "those" stories . Her family has recently moved to America and Amaya is starting at a new school this year. At school she meets a certain family of vampires...
1. Intro

I never expected to fall in love. I'd always expected to be married in a marriage arranged by my father before I was twelve. I'd expected to hate whoever my parents chose for me, I'd even expected to have no say in the matter and be told to keep my opinions silent and obey my parents' wishes. But it never happened. Instead I've fallen head over heels in love with a wonderful guy who loves me for who I am, not the alliances, power and money I could get him. Let me tell you this story…


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I looked out the car window and sighed. We were passing through the center of Astoria, Oregon on the way to our first day of public school. My family and I had moved here a little over a year ago, from our hometown of Kyoto, Japan. Until now, we had been homeschooled by my mother, to catch up with the schools' curriculum and practice English. How different everything was, here in America. I remembered first learning that we would be moving half way around the world…

"_I have an announcement to make" my father, had said during dinner one night in our native language. _

"_What is it, Baba?" my older sister, Nori, had asked._

"_Yes, Nao, do tell us" agreed my mother, always the perfect wife. _

"_I have been offered a promotion and a new job by my boss, Ming-sama" he announced._

"_Oh, how wonderful!" my mother and sister had exclaimed together._

"_Congratulations, Baba" I'd said. "When do you begin?"_

"_As soon as we are ready to leave" my father had replied, proudly._

"_Leave?" My brothers, Keiji and Kenji, and I had repeated, disbelieving._

"_But Baba," I'd said," what do you mean "leave"? Where are we going? And for how long? You know that we…."_

"_Amaya" my mother cut me off, "You know that it is impolite to ask so many questions. Let your Baba finish speaking."_

"_Yes Mama." I said, meekly, knowing it was useless to argue._

"_Good. Now, stand and apologise to your father for interrupting him"_

_I stood and turned to my father._

"_My sincerest apologies, Baba. Please excuse my thoughtlessness" I said as bowed to him. He nodded. "You may sit Amaya." I sat._

"_Now, as I was saying…" he looked at me. I lowered my eyes. "I have been offered a new position as head of a new branch of Ming-sama's industry (my father works for a shipping company). "This new facility is located in America" my father continued._

"_America!" I shouted, jumping up (not the easiest thing to do in a kimono, let me tell you.)_

"_Amaya!" my mother reprimanded me._

"_But, Mama! America is so far away!" I complained._

"_Amaya!" my father glared at me. "You will apologise and retake your seat this instant."_

"_But…" I started again._

"_Very well" my father said, "Amaya, you will remove yourself to your rooms immediately and we will discuss this later." One look at him and I knew I'd gone too far. I nodded meekly._

"_Yes Baba. Goodnight everyone." I said as I bowed and retreated to my rooms_

The car jolted and I snapped back to the present. "OW!" I exclaimed as my head hit the window.

"My apologies, Miss" our driver said from the front seat.

"That's alright, Sun." I assured her. "No harm done."

I looked at my watch; It was only 8:05am and school didn't even start until 9. i was going to be so early it was ridiculous.

"Why did we have to leave so early? I'm going to be the only one there." I complained to no one in particular.

"Because…" started my brother Keiji.

"You have to…" continued my other brother, Kenji.

"Drop US off…"said Keiji.

"First." finished Kenji.

Ugh! Twins!

"Are you doing this just to annoy me?" I asked. They pretended to think about it.

"Yeah, pretty much" they replied in unison. My sister, Maiko, laughed. I sighed inwardly. Why did I get stuck with the task of taking them to school? Why not my parents? I didn't really need an answer, I already knew why; because my father had told me to look after them and, as his daughter, I was obliged to obey.

By now we had reached Keiji, Kenji and Meilina's school, Astoria Middle School. Sun and I walked them in and went with them to the office to get their schedules. We left them talking to a group of other kids. I warned them to behave themselves, especially the Twins, before returning to the car and continuing on to my school.

Now would be a good time to tell you a little about myself, my family and my story. My name Amaya Kazuhiko. I am 16 years old, Japanese born and raised, with our traditions, culture, etiquette and language instilled in me from the time I was born. Every move my family makes reflects our heritage. "Proud and strong" my father calls it; I call it ridiculous. My parents tend to act as if this was still the 16th century, very traditional: my mother Masako married my father, Nao, very young, as part of an arranged ceremony. Less than a year later, my eldest brother was born, Hiro.

Now 22, Hiro is the only one of us children who has yet been married; 3 years ago Hiro married Amelia Styx, Mia as we call her. 2 years ago, they had their first children, Aimee and Bay, a girl and a boy.

After Hiro, my mother had 5 more children, including myself: 3 girls and 2 boys. Nori is the second eldest after Hiro; she's 19 and (surprisingly) not yet married, so she lives at home with us. After Nori is me, Amaya, age 16. Next come the twins, Keiji and Kenji, 14, and finally Maiko, at age 12.

Nori takes more after our mother, quiet, reserved. The Twins are mischievous little devils, constantly getting into trouble and wreaking havoc. Maiko can be quiet and studious, but gets into her fair share of trouble with the Twins.

And me, I am like nobody in our family. My parents call me rebellious, but I just don't want to live as if we were still in feudal Japan, especially now that we have moved to America, the land of opportunities and freedom.

As for my parents, my mother is a timid, traditional woman, the perfect wife: she stays home, cleans and cooks, cares for the children and does not speak out of turn. During almost a year that we've lived here, I think she's only left the house twice, both times accompanied by my father. You'd think she'd have to leave the house more often, but no. if something needs doing outside the home, if my father or Hiro can't do it, she either sends me or the servants to do it (yes we have servants. Sometimes I really hate being rich).

That's enough family history for now I suppose. So, back to the story:


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We reached my school, Astoria Secondary School, a few minutes later. When I checked my watch again, it was only 8:15 and, sure enough, there were no cars in the student parking lot. Even most of the teachers' parking spaces were empty. I sighed.

"Miss?" Our driver spoke again from the front seat. Sun Chou was the youngest daughter of Ming-sama, my father's boss. She was young, only 20 years old, and very pretty. Already she was happily married and expecting her first child in a few months time.

"Would you like me to come inside with you?" she asked. "Or wait until more students arrive?" That mothering instinct was really starting to kick in.

"No thank you Sun, I'll be ok" I said as I opened the car door and stepped out.

"I will be here for you after school once I pick up your brothers and sister"

"Ok Sun, I'll see you later." I closed the door behind me and watched the car drive out of the parking lot. I suddenly felt very alone. I was the new girl at a new school in a new country, not sure what to expect or what's expected of me. I took a deep breath and turned to walk into the school.

...

As soon as I walked in, I noticed how different everything was here compared to my school in Kyoto. Here, the school had 3 floors, walls decorated with huge murals painted by students and multiple outbuildings. Back in Kyoto I went to a very traditional school, where everything was on one level, classically decorated and everyone wore the same uniform: white dress shirt, red skirts or pants and a black blazer and tie. No one wore uniforms here and I felt a little odd today in jeans and a flowy blue shirt, my hair pulled back into a high ponytail.

I found the school office after only a couple wrong turns through the hallways. The secretary was a middle aged woman with kind eyes and brown hair. Her name plate read "Mrs. Darien".

"Good morning," she said, "can I help you?"

"Yes, thank you. My name is Amaya Kazuhiko." I replied. "I'm a new student here." I bowed as I spoke and mentally kicked myself as I stood straight again. America! No bowing! The secretary just smiled at me as she spoke:

"Oh yes, of course. Just give me moment…" she trailed off as she shuffled through the papers on her desk. "Ah! Here we are," she exclaimed, pulling a couple sheets from the mass on the desk top. "Here's your class schedule and a map of the school for you." She handed me the papers. "Do you know how to read them?" I nodded. "Good. And I need this form signed by your teachers and a parent and brought back to me tomorrow morning. Got all that?" I nodded. "Excellent. Then I'll see you tomorrow and welcome to Astoria."

"Thank you," I said as I turned to leave the office.

...

By now it was 8:30 or so and some other students were starting to show up. I wanted to avoid the socialising for awhile longer, so I decided to go find somewhere outside to sit and read. Thankfully, it wasn't raining and I found a nice picnic table to sit at by the front of the school.

A group of kids walked past me as I read.

"Who's the Jap?" one guy asked, a sneer in his voice. A girl, his girlfriend I assumed, giggled loudly. I sighed inwardly, not showing any reaction to their comments. I knew they'd leave me alone sooner or later as long as I didn't react. Sure enough, they left after a minute more.

Class time was getting closer and more and more students started showing up, greeting their friends and gossiping together. I could feel the stared directed at me. I ignored them. Checking my watch, it said I had 5 minutes to find my first class. I pulled my schedule out of my bag:

Day 1

_9:00am – History 11 – Mrs. Marshall – rm. 301_

_10:05am – Sciences humaines 11 – Mlle. Félix – rm. 113_

_11:05am – Break _

_11:20am – Math 11- Mr. Lucas – rm. 225_

_12:20pm – Lunch _

_1:05pm – Biology 11- Ms. Taavi – rm. 121_

_2:10pm – English 11 – Mr. Nabu – rm. 312_

_3:15pm – Dismissal_

Day 2

_9:00am – Music – Ms. Keaton – rm. 126_

_10:05am – Physical education – Mr. Janez –gymnasium _

_11:05am – Break _

_11:20am – Foreign cultures and languages – Ms. Zaccai – rm. 321_

_12:20pm – Lunch _

_1:05pm – Study block_

_2:10pm – Chemistry 11 – Mrs. Jacobson – rm. 105_

_3:15pm – Dismissal_

By the time I actually made it to History, the bell had gone and I was running late. _Great, _I thought, _first day and I'm late. _

When I walked into class, everyone stopped and turned to stare and me. _Hurray._ I walked up to the teacher's desk and introduced myself, giving Mrs. Marshall the form to sign. She returned it to me with a smile.

"Welcome to our school Amaya" she said.

"Thank you." I replied.

"Why don't you sit over there by Mr. Cullen." She pointed to an empty desk near the back, between a blond haired boy and a brunette girl with her nose in a book. I walked to the desk and sat, pulling my books from my bag as I did. While I flipped through my textbook, I noticed the blond boy turn to look at me, before turning to stare vacantly out the window. Being the first class of the school year, all it really was was talking about the curriculum, course outline and class expectations. Who'd have guessed that the "welcome back to the first day of school" talks were universal?


End file.
